Without wanting to harp on the subject, let me now give a small lecture. This is an old aerial view (2005 according to Google Earth). Bottom left is the water tower and top left is the building site. Just above the water tower are now a couple of new houses.

As you can see on this next photo, the electricity cables are already in place from the water tower along the main road and .....

..... they go past my road which is in this next photo.

The builder has attached (or will attach) a (very) long cable to the temporary meter, but his concern is theft.The electricity company might want it where they specified because their concern is theft.Anyhow ..... today the project manager and the builder are talking to the electricity company to see if something different can be done. I've told them that if an extra donation would get us what we want, then to go ahead and donate.I am of course expecting to pay for the 140 metres, or whatever is needed, of cable that will be installed when the permanent electricity is connected and it is not that I object to the costs incurred, but more to the route they expect the temporary cables to take.

Electric update / breaking news: it seems that a solution has been found. I was right, they were scared of theft so I offered to buy the meter from them instead of just rent it, but ........ as Ae (the builder) is a local, he knows the electric company's inspectors and so he and Fluke (the project manager) took him / them out for a drink last night and they found a compromise:on Monday, once the workers are settled into their new accommodation on site, the electricity company will come and install the temporary meter on site!

The first structure has started to go up ... although I don't remember this one from the plans. Where this pole is going in marks the start of another retaining wall, this one only about 1 to 1.5 metres high.

They've started to mark out walls, boundaries and heights in preparation for tomorrow's start-up. I think they'll start with the first of the 61 pilings.In the background the last of the concrete is being poured for the lower retaining wall.

I asked for an approximate build time for the foundations, house number 1 and the staff house and was told "about 7 months". So I'm telling myself 9 months so as not to be too disappointed when it gets delayed.A detailed costing is still being prepared, but we're hoping to have completed the foundations, house number 1 and the staff house for no more than 1.5 million Baht. The interior of the dressing room is not included in that guesstimate.

It's going to be 65 pilings in total. 45 will be drilled / poured / built in the first phase.The roof overhangs have been trimmed back a little. The engineer thought it safer that way. I think the maximum is now about 2.5 metres.

The wood is now in place and together with the nylon wires it represents the floor of the houses. The pilings will be drilled underneath, then come footings and then the posts so a total height of about 11 metres up to the top of the walls.

The wooden structure is the works-storeroom. The accommodation will be one level lower down.Here the various heights can (almost) be seen: the top of this wall is the level of the lower garden and in the distance the floor of the houses can be seen.

Today the pump was installed. I'm told that when they took off the plug, the water was visible up to about 3 metres from the surface. We must have hit a cavern or something like that. We could supply the whole neighbourhood. The flow is estimated to be about 5,000 litres per hour.

The piling contractors arrived and got straight to work. It's 7,100 Baht per piling and there will be 68 of them. Big money, but then at least this house should be one of the few left standing in Thailand in 2110, 2210, .... We've decided to do all 68 right away. It will save time and effort later on.

The (base of the) lower retaining-wall was completed yesterday. Mr. & Mrs. wall-builder have agreed to smooth it over a little before receiving their final 30% payment today.The smoothing over will save any future problems we might have if and when a neighbour starts to build although I am hoping that they might offer me that 170 Talang Wah piece of land at sometime in the future.

The builder and project manager are organising the holy people and whatever accessories are needed for the foundation-blessing ceremony this coming Friday at 9:09 in the morning.

The piling rig. Because there aren't yet any structures on site that might be damaged, they're using the noisy lift-high-and-then-drop-it method.4 down, 64 to go.

The building inspector dropped by to see that only the permitted work was being carried out, but he actually just came for a chat with his pals the builder and architect. He also turns out to be my nearest neighbour.

Why is it that the ladies always do the steel work? I find that intriguing.Here the steels for the piles are being manufactured.